Life is beautiful but then it can give lemons at times. However, it is how one deals with it that determines one’s personality. My maternal grandmother who my cousins fondly call “ammamma” reached a major milestone in her life that several of us may never reach. She became a centenarian this October. What a wonderful journey! This was a story straight from an Indian movie, except that it was real. It all took place in a little town in Andhra Pradesh in the 1930s, when love marriages were not that prevalent. Smart and beautiful at 16, my grandmother attracted the attention of my grandfather, a young zamindar’s son and a budding telugu poet. They fell in love with each other. Soon, at age 18, my grandmother married him against the wishes of her …show more content…
Even though financially they were doing good, there were times when my grandmother needed to run the family and take care of the family duties all by herself. Lovingly, she supported her husband and he supported her where he could. It was a love story to cherish! The days passed quickly and soon my grandparents were happily celebrating the graduations and weddings of their children. Things were moving reasonably fine for them until the day when a few callous people cheated my grandparents off their land which they had saved for the education and marriage expenses of the rest of their children. Both my grandparents were devastated due to this loss. Soon after, my grandfather passed away due to his ill-health which had worsened further due to the financial …show more content…
She showered all her affection equally on her twenty-one grandchildren and mesmerized us with her numerous stories. Never idle, in her free time, she embroidered and painstakingly hand stitched some of our dresses which we wore and showed off during our summer vacations. She was also an excellent cook. I still remember her simple yet flavorful dishes to this day. Without her, I don’t believe we would have had the summers we had growing up. It was all about fun, family bonding and eating delicious home cooked food. I would never trade the summers I spent with my grandmother or my cousins for anything else in this world. I would however love to turn back in time and place my head in her lap and hear her
My relationship with my grandmother paved the way of my education, my faith, my success. Her understanding and unconditional love, as well as, faith in me along with my past experiences, helped shape my character today. I am currently a high school graduate, who was ranked number 4 in my class with a 3.79 G.P.A. Not to mention, on a full scholarship to college, and by the end of July have a total of eleven college credits before becoming an official freshman.
The grandmother is very old and has lived a very tough life in Vietnam. She “‘lost four of [her] children… twelve of [her] grandchildren and countless relatives to wars and famines’” (Meyer, 74) while in Vietnam. During her life she had very little time to enjoy herself, instead she had to focus on not only surviving, but also holding a family together and getting them through the hardships as well. On top of the Vietnam War, which killed an estimated 500,000-600,000 Vietnamese citizens alone (Weisner), she had to live through 2 additional wars and several famines. The implicated stress and hardships are almost unimaginable. This is evident in her stories and fairy tales she tells her granddaughters, which always have dark twist or no happy ending, or as the granddaughters say “The husband comes too late” (Meyer, 77) to stop the bad guy or save the
Often people look towards old people as people who are dull, and not full of life. They don’t understand anything of the times. They pinch cheeks. They always tell boring stories. These are many things people stereotype the older generation as being. Yet, this is not true at all. Older people need to be highly respected. They have lived such long lives and gone through so much. They give so much insight on how people should live their lives as clearly they have endured through it. In the short story of A Celebration of Grandfathers by Rudolfo A. Anaya, it suggests important life lessons that everyone needs to know.
Throughout her life, my mother lovingly cared for her parents, her husband of 55 years (John A. Morris, Sr.), her 3 children, and her adopted sisters and brothers. She served as a second mother to her siblings, as well as to her nieces and nephews. She also stayed in close touch with her aunts and uncles and her first cousins. Throughout my life (even before I entered the picture) many relatives came to live with my parents.
This reflection paper is based on the life history interview conducted on me and a 78-year-old woman who is soon going to celebrate her 79th birthday on Sep 21st. I would call her with a fictitious name “Smita” in the entire paper to maintain and protect her privacy. The interview was about our life. It was divided into six major life categories: childhood, adulthood, identity, the present, aging, and life lessons. Having an opportunity to interview a 78-year-old woman and writing this reflective paper about the life history and experiences had made me realize that I have a lot to learn about the stages of human life. Every individual lives are different and it varies tremendously. As an interviewee my goal was to collect the details of life, different stories, and experiences that makes our life unique from the rest of the people.
Gran, as I frequently called her, stood at five feet seven inches tall. She was an elderly woman in her mid-50s that enjoyed living life and helping others in any way possible, whether it is at the market selling produce, donating to a charity for the less fortunate, or participating in walk-a-thons. On the verge of going into her sixties, her behavior protruded was one of a woman in her early thirties. Dressed in a tight, knee-high khaki pants, a black V-cut top, and a black sandals, with her hand held on her hip saying, “I might be old in age, but I am young and strong at heart darling” as she responded to my comment, in my dialect, “Yuh feel you too young.” This brought much humor to the room. The joyou...
She is a multi-talented women with determination and believes if you set your mind your goal there isn't anything that you can't achieve. My grandma wasn't able to be somebody that gave a lot of influence and didn't meet some of her goals, I am proud of her intelligence and how much she was able to do independently. Even as a grandma she loves to learn and presently is learning English. She is almost eighty years old and she looks like she is only sixty. Even now as a grandma, she is active and passionate about education. She encourages me to get a
Family : My Grandmother Mildred truly defined the word family as I have come to learn and live it. Holidays and family gatherings were the celebrations they were because they were surrounded by Grandma’s love. I watched family such as my late uncle Reginald become the amazing family man he was because of traditions instilled by his mother. I have also seen her daughter - my aunt Milinda – raise three beautiful children by the love and traditions passed down from Grandma. I, of course, owe most of who I am from Grandma’s love passed down through my own mother Rayetta and her husband George, whom Grandma so highly regarded.
We moved closer to her once I started school. My Grandma met my brother and me almost always once we got home from school. It was always welcoming to have a friendly face when you got home. She taught me how to read and write and once I was able to read she dedicated numerous books to me that she always recommended and had such a vivid story. On hot summer days she would take us to the beach and play in the water and sand, or have a great time running around on the park, or just going there to enjoy a nice picnic. We had such a long walk to our front door of numerous winding steps and she came up with a game to play down them. We called ...
Loving each other is what our family believed in. We only had one back bone within our family and it was Mrs. Annie Mae. She kept us together during the hardest times. Each holiday, the holiday spirit flooded the house with pure happiness and joy. The sound of various categories of music was interesting, and made everyone so happy. Our taste buds ‘jumped off the walls’ because of all the delicious foods and deserts she hand prepared. Happiness and joy is what my great grandmother was all
This lady is the most wonderful person I 've ever met. She is old, affectionate, and intelligent. It took me eighteen years to realize how much this extraordinary person influenced my life. She 's the type of person who charms everyone with her stories and experiences. She always time for her family and friends. She is the kind of leader who does everything to keep her family together and in harmony. She is my grandmother.
I often stop and think about all the great times we spend together these passed 5 years, sharing French fries during lunch will always be my best memory of her because that is one passion we both shared. All the amazing things she would talk about, she will always be the example for me to follow the way she embraced life and consciously lived loving and reading books. She was such a pleasure to have as a friend/ co-worker and to have her in my life was Awesome!!! I can honestly say I have learned so much from her and will remember her always as larger-than-life, such a warm, generous, wonderful mother, funny and loving friend to me. It is a privilege to call her my friend.
I don’t know a lot about my grandfather, I know he drank and smoked heavily for a long time, and that those were the main contributors to his death at the age of 45. My grandmother told me that he was a very loving man, but that there was always a deep sadness that followed him since she had known him. My grandmother Jaqueline was probably one of the two strongest people I have ever known, she had survived German occupation in Normandy (and fought against it as a teenager), lived in some of the poorest countries in the world teaching rural school children, and raised 5 children after having been left a widow. While not all of my uncles would turn out well following the death of their father, she tried her hardest as a single parent to make sure they always had food and a loving family to come home to, but she faced many of the same economic and social problems that single parents still face today (Knox, 362). She also had very polarized views of types of people and wasn’t afraid to talk about it (she was racist towards Romani) and it often upset my family, as my aunt and cousins are Romani (My parents were able to turn that into a lesson about racism and how it hurts people). Her long stays with my family would often put a lot of strain on my parent’s relationship, but living in France, it was not a trip she or my family could make often. Much like Harriet’s mother in The Fifth Child, she did come stay with us for several months when I was extremely ill, in order to let my parents keep working, but this still had a toll on all of them. These interviews with my parents not only gave me an insight into the differences between them and myself, but also allowed me to remember and see the connections to the wonderful but flawed people that they came
Something that I really struggled with was the passing of my Grandmother. She was a strong woman and an inspiration to everybody in my family. I think that I struggled with it because she was a great human being, I kind of looked up to her a bit, and of course she was part of my family. I think that along with her passing, I struggled with the fact that she died when I thought that she did nothing wrong in her entire life and did not deserve to die. Mainly the fact that she was a really good person and she just died like that.
She said, “I’m a grandmother, my love for you is just like having another daughter.” I realized that she was my biggest supporter and teaching me how to be independent was something she did from the bottom of her heart. She also felt that since my father wasn’t in my life that I deserved to have all the support from family. My mother is a single mom and my grandmother stepped up to the plate and helped where my mom fell short. I will always have the up-most respect for my grandmother because she went over and beyond for me. I felt as though my grandmother did everything out of love and not because she felt obligated to. She hasn’t missed a beat in my life, every school performance, dance recitals, and band performance my grandmother was there. I am forever grateful for everything that she has done and for things that she has yet to